McCreadie Reaches East Bay Victory Lane on Wednesday Night

TAMPA, FL – Tim McCreadie managed to come away with another early season victory Wednesday night at East Bay Raceway Park. He inherited the lead with five laps to go after race leader Jonathan Davenport’s misfortune. Davenport appeared to be on his way to victory, but hooked a rut in turn four, folding his nosepiece under and causing his car to come to a halt on the front stretch. Kyle Bronson was unfortunate victim of circumstance, as he did not have time to slow his car down. Bronson made heavy contact with the back of Davenport’s car, eliminating both from competition.

McCreadie was second at the time of the race changing incident then picked up the lead as he held off Brandon Overton and Brandon Sheppard for his second series victory in four starts this season. It was McCreadie’s 17thcareer Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win and his fourth ever at East Bay Raceway Park.

The Wells Motorsports Longhorn driven by Brandon Overton, now has three, runner-up finishes in the first four series events of 2020. Tuesday Nights feature winner, Brandon Sheppard, finished a close third to Overton. Tyler Erb came from the 22nd starting spot to place fourth, and Brian Shirley had his first top five Lucas Oil finish of the year.

McCreadie and Davenport made up the front row for the 40-lap main event. Davenport would lead the first three laps of the race in a tight battle with McCreadie. McCreadie would gain the lead briefly on lap four, but a lap later Davenport forged his way back to the point.

Dennis Erb Jr. stepped up to battle with McCreadie for second as they both trailed Davenport. Erb grabbed the second spot for two laps, but McCreadie fought back as the two had a spirited race for second.

At the halfway mark, Davenport was still in front, but by this time Overton had overtaken McCreadie for second after he started in fifth. A caution on lap 23 would bunch the field up as McCreadie charged back to second, this time around Overton. A caution on lap 28 would again set a race restart with 12 circuits left.

On the ensuing green, Davenport would start to stretch his lead back out as a torrid race for second was going on between McCreadie and Overton.  With five laps go Davenport entered turn four, hopped in the air and when he came down, the right front of his nosepiece folded under his car. At this point, he could not steer the car and was forced into the frontstretch wall. Both McCreadie and Overton dived underneath the disabled car of Davenports but fourth running Bronson, did not have time to react and smashed into the back of Davenports car.

In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the second time in 2020, McCreadie said, “It’s exciting. I love winning, but you want to get it by passing the best. Tonight, we had some luck, and we’ll take it and go on to tomorrow. It’s such a pleasure to race with J.D (Davenport). We became real close last year and I was fully prepared to shake his hand here, because it looked like he had us just covered enough. It looks like there’s just such a bad hole off (turn) four and the bumper drug it or something. I think the worst part about it is that you can’t see (the hole). It’s covered up with fine crumbs, so you don’t really know where it is until you get there. I hate what happened to J.D., his team has helped us tremendously. I would also like to thank Gena and Donald, and my team. Gena went home earlier, and our prayers go out to her for her mother.”

Overton, like McCreadie, is driving for a new team owner this year and has remained consistent with his start to the 2020 season. “If we stay up here with these top-three runs, the wins will come. The first one’s the hardest to get. I probably didn’t have a second-place car tonight, for sure. I couldn’t get through the holes and I’d get to bouncing and the thing was kind of shutting off and blubbering … just lucky to hang on to second. I hate that for J.D. and Bronson, that didn’t look too good.”

Sheppard, in the Rocket 1 House Car fought and clawed his way to third at the finish. “It was getting better the longer the race was going. When the track was faster, (the car) was a little bit snug, especially in traffic, we were slicing and dicing. The top was the most dominant and the bottom was going away in a hurry, so we got stuck down in the bottom on about every restart, which really hurt us a lot, especially early in the race.”

“Hats off to my guys. I put us behind in qualifying a little bit and we managed a second place in the heat race. But with six heat races, that still started us 12th, so we’ve gotta try and win the heat race tomorrow and get up there in the top six.”

The winner’s Donald and Gena Bradsher-owned Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Cornett Racing Engine and sponsored by Mega Plumbing of the Carolinas, Bilstein Shocks, VP Fuels, Sweeteners Plus and D&E Marine.

Completing the top ten were Jimmy Owens, Devin Moran, Shane Clanton, Mike Marlar and Mason Zeigler.

Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Race Summary
Wrisco Industries Winternationals – presented by Lucas Oil
Wednesday, February 5th, 2020
East Bay Raceway Park – Tampa, FL

Lucas Oil Time Trials
Fast Time Group A: Tim McCreadie / 14.579 seconds (overall)
Fast Time Group B: Jonathan Davenport / 14.826 seconds

Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 39-Tim McCreadie[1]; 2. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[2]; 3. 9-Devin Moran[4]; 4. 157-Mike Marlar[6]; 5. 0E-Rick Eckert[7]; 6. 94M-Jason Miller[5]; 7. 2W-Pearson Williams[3]; 8. KB0-Kerry King[11]; 9. 5T-John Tweed[10]; 10. 7M-Donald McIntosh[8]; 11. (DNS) 27-Joe Denby

FK Rod Ends Heat Race #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 40B-Kyle Bronson[2]; 2. 21M-Billy Moyer Sr[5]; 3. 311-Ken Monahan[1]; 4. J8-Jadon Frame[3]; 5. 20F-Trever Feathers[4]; 6. 2S-Stormy Scott[10]; 7. 33J-Jeff Mathews[6]; 8. B1-Brent Larson[9]; 9. 18-David Seibers[8]; 10. 94-Charles Powell[11]; 11. (DNS) 16-Tyler Bruening

Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 76-Brandon Overton[4]; 2. 50-Shanon Buckingham[1]; 3. 18J-Chase Junghans[2]; 4. 3S-Brian Shirley[5]; 5. 89-GR Smith[10]; 6. 42-Chris Garnes[6]; 7. 16R-Justin Rattliff[7]; 8. 40-Joel Callahan[3]; 9. 71-Hudson O’Neal[9]; 10. 22G-Greg Oakes[8]; 11. 22B-Austin Burns[11]

Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 2. 20-Jimmy Owens[4]; 3. 14-Josh Richards[2]; 4. 81E-Tanner English[5]; 5. 1ST-Johnny Scott[3]; 6. 98-Jason Rauen[6]; 7. 11B-Stacy Boles[8]; 8. 76B-Blair Nothdurft[9]; 9. 000-Kyle Lear[11]; 10. 6S-Blake Spencer[7]; 11. 20B-Todd Brennan[10]

Wrisco Heat Race #5 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 28E-Dennis Erb Jr[1]; 2. 6T-Tim Dohm[2]; 3. 25-Shane Clanton[3]; 4. 2-Allen Murray[4]; 5. F1-Coleby Frye[8]; 6. 10B-David Breazeale[10]; 7. 51M-Joey Moriarty[9]; 8. 66C-Matt Cosner[11]; 9. 2D-Dan Stone[5]; 10. 0K-Freddie Carpenter[7]; 11. 1V-Vic Hill[6]

MyRacePass Heat Race #6 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 99B-Boom Briggs[1]; 2. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[3]; 3. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[2]; 4. 17-Logan Roberson[6]; 5. 00-Jesse Stovall[10]; 6. 1T-Tyler Erb[4]; 7. 48-Colton Flinner[5]; 8. 81-Jason Riggs[8]; 9. 25W-Allen Weisser[7]; 10. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[9]

Tiger Rear Ends B-Main #1 Finish (12 Laps, Winner Transfers): 1. J8-Jadon Frame[2]; 2. 157-Mike Marlar[1]; 3. 20F-Trever Feathers[4]; 4. 0E-Rick Eckert[3]; 5. 94M-Jason Miller[5]; 6. 2W-Pearson Williams[7]; 7. B1-Brent Larson[10]; 8. 18-David Seibers[12]; 9. 94-Charles Powell[14]; 10. 33J-Jeff Mathews[8]; 11. KB0-Kerry King[9]; 12. 2S-Stormy Scott[6]; 13. (DNS) 16-Tyler Bruening; 14. (DNS) 27-Joe Denby; 15. (DNS) 7M-Donald McIntosh; 16. (DNS) 5T-John Tweed

FAST Shafts B-Main #2 Finish (12 Laps, Winner Transfers): 1. 3S-Brian Shirley[1]; 2. 89-GR Smith[3]; 3. 81E-Tanner English[2]; 4. 98-Jason Rauen[6]; 5. 1ST-Johnny Scott[4]; 6. 16R-Justin Rattliff[7]; 7. 11B-Stacy Boles[8]; 8. 40-Joel Callahan[9]; 9. 000-Kyle Lear[12]; 10. 6S-Blake Spencer[14]; 11. 42-Chris Garnes[5]; 12. 76B-Blair Nothdurft[10]; 13. 22B-Austin Burns[15]; 14. 71-Hudson O’Neal[11]; 15. (DNS) 20B-Todd Brennan; 16. (DNS) 22G-Greg Oakes

Lucas Oil B-Main #3 Finish (12 Laps, Winner Transfers): 1. 17-Logan Roberson[2]; 2. 2-Allen Murray[1]; 3. F1-Coleby Frye[3]; 4. 00-Jesse Stovall[4]; 5. 1T-Tyler Erb[6]; 6. 10B-David Breazeale[5]; 7. 66C-Matt Cosner[9]; 8. 51M-Joey Moriarty[7]; 9. 2D-Dan Stone[11]; 10. 48-Colton Flinner[8]; 11. 0K-Freddie Carpenter[13]; 12. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[14]; 13. 25W-Allen Weisser[12]; 14. (DNS) 1V-Vic Hill; 15. (DNS) 81-Jason Riggs

Berry Barn Strawberry Dash- presented by DirtonDirt.com Finish: 1. 20F-Trever Feathers[4]; 2. 2-Allen Murray[3]; 3. 89-GR Smith[2]; 4. 0E-Rick Eckert[7]; 5. 81E-Tanner English[5]; 6. 2W-Pearson Williams[11]; 7. 16R-Justin Rattliff[12]; 8. 94M-Jason Miller[10]; 9. F1-Coleby Frye[6]; 10. 98-Jason Rauen[8]; 11. (DNS) 157-Mike Marlar; 12. (DNS) 00-Jesse Stovall

Lucas Oil Feature Finish (40 Laps):

Race Statistics
Entrants: 65
Lap Leaders: Jonathan Davenport (Laps 1 – 3); Tim McCreadie (Lap 4); Jonathan Davenport (Laps 5 – 35); Tim McCreadie (Laps 36 – 50)
Wrisco Feature Winner: Tim McCreadie
Margin of Victory: 0.925 seconds
Cautions: Tim McCreadie (Lap 1); Trever Feathers (Lap 6); Johnny Scott, Jadon Frame, Stormy Scott, Tyler Bruening, Mike Marlar (Lap 7); Billy Moyer (Lap 14); Boom Briggs (Lap 23); Tim Dohm (Lap 28); Jonathan Davenport, Kyle Bronson (Lap 35)
Series Provisionals: Tyler Erb; Hudson O’Neal
Wrisco Industries Fast Time Provisional:Johnny Scott
Berry Barn Strawberry Dash Provisionals:Trever Feathers; Allen Murray
Series Emergency Provisionals: Earl Pearson Jr.; Stormy Scott; Mike Marlar; Tyler Bruening
Big River Steel Podium Top 3:Tim McCreadie; Brandon Overton; Brandon Sheppard
Optima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race: Mike Marlar (Advanced 20 Positions)
Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Tim McCreadie
Allstar Performance Most Laps Led: Jonathan Davenport (34 Laps)
Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Brandon Overton
Eibach Springs Rookie of the Race: n/a
Engine Builder of the Race: Cornett Racing Engines
Miller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Longhorn Chassis
Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race: Philip Snellen (Tim McCreadie)
Dirty Girl Racewear Fastest Lap of the Race: Jonathan Davenport (Lap #1 – 15.3818 seconds)
Hot Rod Processing Tough Break of the Race: Kyle Bronson
PFC Brakes Pole Award: Tim McCreadie
Time of Race: 45 minutes 37 seconds